Book review: Rich and rewarding biography of a brainiac

Francis Crick was a prolific writer, always happy to advance theories, and biographer Matthew Cobb continues that work of sharing the ideas that try to map our world and existence

Francis Crick in his study at Cambridge in 1962; he achieved fame for discovering the double helix structure of DNA along with James Watson. File picture: PA

• Crick: A Mind in Motion — from DNA to the Brain 
• Matthew Cobb 
• Profile Books, hb €43.50 

Those of us with time to daydream can indulge the whimsy of building the perfect list of dinner party guests. 

If you’ve done that, you’ll be aware of the risk of reading an impressive biography. Theoretical and anguished musical chairs may ensue.

Matthew Cobb’s comprehensive biography of Francis Crick who, with James Watson discovered the double helix structure of DNA in 1953 reaching a new understanding of how genes work, would certainly move someone with a scientific background to revise their guest list. 

However, a host without that context might be circumspect. 

Just as a general reader might struggle with the technical sections of this entertaining biography, a fluency in the relevant science would, naturally, deepen the reading experience.

The author, emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, recognises this and shares a sensible steer: “Follow Crick’s advice to readers of his own books and skip the hard bits.”

Even if you do that this is a rich and rewarding experience and often highlights life’s quirks — positive or negative. 

When Crick reached 60, he found he was, for financial reasons, unable to retire. This brought American institutions with deep pockets into play and he was duly enticed across the Atlantic. 

This change of scenery provoked a renewed flowering of energy and imagination. Early career fecklessness led to a golden autumn. 

There is too a profound lesson in how to work, how to achieve objectives.

Crick was a prolific writer, and he was always happy to advance theories he knew to be less than robust, sometimes they were wildly implausible. 

He knew the ensuing conversation among peers might resolve an issue that defied his efforts. Collegiality was a lubricant of success.

This characteristic may have been formed in his earlier life when he was, to put it mildly, far less than the academic meteor he became. 

He struggled to get a solid footing in academia, a reality that was well forgotten when in later life he became assertive and sometimes arrogant. 

He was also a party animal and a serial philanderer, once telling his loyal wife Odile that “sexual intercourse was a panacea for all kinds of troubles”. 

That he drove a red Lotus Elan and enjoyed the work and company of poets, especially Michael McClure, adds to the impression that he was open to stimulations far beyond the kind of concentrated research needed to crack the tougher conundrums facing this world.

He was also a wonderful communicator and realised that the complexities he, often in conjunction with others, uncovered were to be fully understood and appreciated he needed to offer a Rosetta Stone to the curious general reader. 

This he did on a regular basis and in his own reassuring way, Matthew Cobb continues that work of sharing the ideas that try to map our world and existence.

Having said all that, and through no fault of Cobb, I’m not sure I’ll revise my dinner party list as for all his mercurial qualities Crick seems almost too rooted in his time. 

For the moment I’ll consign him to the subs’ bench despite the great qualities of this biography.